For the Youtube video conversation go to: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS2i0PkG5rjjaOSrRzUotRQ In this episode Carol concentrates on the military torture perpetrated in Guantanamo, highlighting the experience of Mohamedou Slahi, subject of the film “The Mauritanian” with Jodie Foster and Benedict Cumberbatch. She speaks with Larry Siems, editor of Guantanamo Diary by Slahi and author of The Torture Report.
Larry Siems’s career in human rights and free expression advocacy includes 17 years directing Freedom to Write and International Programs for PEN, the international writers’ organization. At PEN, he designed and coordinated global campaigns to protect writers and defend the right of all to freedom of expression, and supported the efforts of writers in more than a dozen countries to defend journalism, literature, and free speech.
Larry has been an impassioned critic of US military torture and collaborated with the ACLU to write The Torture Report. And his editing of Guantanamo Diary allows for the full benefit of Mohamedou Slahi’s spirit and humor, his friendships with peers and with guards. As such the reader does not easily become overwhelmed by the acts of torture described, only because they do not eliminate the other parts of Mohamedou’s human experience.